How to Buy Bitcoin Anonymously Online

While some cryptocurrencies do allow for anonymous transactions, the bitcoin blockchain does not. It records everything in its ledger. Therefore, anyone with a little bit of expertise and time can easily trace bitcoin transactions back to you. We know how anonymity is important especially in this current environment. Thus, we have taken the liberty of bringing you some tools and techniques that you can leverage to ensure that you truly and fully remain anonymous while buying bitcoins.  

How to Acquire Bitcoins Easily

Before we can get into how you can purchase bitcoins anonymously, let’s take a look at how you can easily acquire bitcoins. These include:

Mining

Mining is the foremost way of landing bitcoins in your possession. In case you are unaware, mining is the process of verifying bitcoin transactions for monetary reward. This monetary reward is payment in bitcoins. Simultaneously, the act of mining keeps the bitcoin network secure while allowing the production of new bitcoins.

However, mining requires extremely expensive specialized hardware to undertake. Besides, it consumes a lot of electricity just to keep the process operational. The workaround this would be to join a bitcoin mining pool which costs significantly less compared to bitcoin mining.

Pools

Mining pools, an alternative to direct mining, is a joint mining operation by a group of miners who put together their processing power towards bitcoin mining. If the pool successfully validates a block, the pool divides the resulting bitcoin reward among the individuals according to each individual’s contribution to the pool.

Unlike direct mining where a single person attempts to solve the next block’s puzzle, pool mining combines the effort of several miners. This is like having a computer with more cores working on a problem. Additionally, a Bitcoin pool divides any bitcoin rewards from the combined mining effort among all members contributing to the pool. It’s effectively brilliant for individuals who lack enough resources to set up their own dedicated mining equipment.

Advantages

  • In both scenarios, you don’t require any special skill or prior experience to get started.
  • They are both efficient ways of earning some passive income. Simply exchange any income earned from mining for fiat currency.
  • Bitcoin mining via a mining pool is significantly cheaper and anyone with any free resources can join.
  • You earn bitcoins for every successfully confirming bitcoin transactions.

Disadvantages

  • There is no clear-cut guarantee that you will make any money.
  • Bitcoin mining hardware today is extremely expensive with rigs costing thousands of dollars.
  • Individual bitcoin mining takes up too much power which will see your electricity costs going through the roof.

Earning Bitcoins

There are several ways that you can bitcoin. These include:

Portals

Several portals can pay you in bitcoins without negating the need for any high-level skill. These include bitcoins faucets, games, and survey sites. Although less prevalent than before, bitcoin faucets release small amounts of bitcoins to members for free. The amounts are extremely tiny, mere cents at best.

Some game developers reward game users with bitcoins for trying their games. When someone reaches a certain level or attains a certain accomplishment, pay the bitcoin reward. Lastly, some survey sites pay bitcoins to complete some simple surveys and tasks.  Unfortunately, the bitcoins paid out are extremely minute.

Bitcoin Paid Directly

If you have a special skill that you can sell online such as writing, web development, or programming, then you can ask your clients to pay you in bitcoin. Or any other alternative currency that you may prefer. Additionally, several online marketplaces pay you directly in bitcoin for your services. You may want to check this out if you want to get your hands on some bitcoin.

Advantages

  • You get to earn bitcoin from any kind of special skill that you possess through your clients.
  • You don’t spend any money to acquire any of these bitcoins that you receive with the two methods above.
  • No specialized equipment is needed. Saves a lot of money and setup related costs.

Disadvantages

  • Unless you are getting paid large amounts by one of your clients, the amount of bitcoins acquired may be small but will build up over time.
  • Some of these tasks are extremely time-consuming and given the amount of bitcoins received, not worth the setup.

How to Buy Bitcoins Anonymously

Exchange

This last option will involve you making a purchase in exchange for ownership of bitcoin. Let’s take a look at several options that are available to you.

In-Person/Person-to-Person Exchange

This is one of the most underutilized technique to purchase bitcoins anonymously. There are a lot of people online who own bitcoins and are willing to sell bitcoins directly. Additionally, they may sell their bitcoins below market-price since taxes aren’t calculated in the transaction. However, extreme caution is advised as there is a high risk of being scammed if the entire transaction occurs online.

Exchange Websites

There are plenty of exchange websites that allow you to purchase bitcoins without verification. These are online marketplaces for buyers and sellers who wish to keep their transactions anonymous. The benefit of these websites is that any payment is held in escrow until bitcoins are transferred. Thereby, providing some sort of safety net. Examples include:

  • LocalBitcoins

LocalBitcoins is a popular bitcoin trading platform that allows sellers and buyers to meet in person for bitcoin exchange. With thousands of sellers in major cities around the world, there’s always a good chance of finding a bitcoin seller.

  • ShapeShift

ShapeShift, on the other hand, allows you to purchase bitcoins with no ID verification. However, you will require to make bitcoin purchases with altcoins. This comes in handy for people with Ethereum or Litecoin at hand. Additionally, no account setup is required. You can literally purchase bitcoins in seconds.

Using Gift Cards

Lastly, you can use bitcoin gift cards or vouchers. These gift cards contain redeemable codes that allow you to purchase or gift bitcoin to anyone. Furthermore, you can gift bitcoin to anyone in the world, even if they don’t have a bitcoin wallet yet.

Advantages

  • They are extremely safe methods of buying bitcoins for both the sellers and the buyers
  • Along with guaranteed anonymity, the fees are extremely low.
  • All these options have support for a range of payment methods.

Disadvantages

  • Some of these options such as person-to-person exchange can be extremely risky due to the anonymous nature of the exchange.
  • Some fees may be applied.